Help with spelling In Cyrillic...

[bwildfong]

Hi folks,

Wonder if someone with a better (read: any) command of written Russian might be able to help me out. I'd like to add a signpost to a figure base, the lettering to read "Station 559", referring to a WW2 Russian airfield used by USAAF planes during the Operation Frantic shuttle bombing missions in 1944.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,
Brian

 

[bwildfong]

Thanks to the magic of that newfangled Interweb, I figured it out all by meself! Thanks for looking in though...

Brian

 

[theBaron]

You might still want a Russian speaker to check your work, for a good idiomatic translation. What you're thinking of as "Station 559" might not necessarily be translatable directly from English into Russian, and online translation programs still aren't as good as a human.

Prost!
Brad

 

[Gaudin]

Brad is right. Translation is often context specific and also will need to be put in further perspective of what Russians would normally use at that time for that particular military object
Having had just casual glance at the subject, it will not be "station" as this usually implies railway or road transport. In russian sources it is designated as "Aвиабаза 559" which means aviation base. Whether this would be what actual sign said (and how of much of a secret it was) and what aviation base signs looked like at the time - that needs a bit of reading which I havent had a chance to do.

Station 559 was based under Poltava in Ukraine so a a road sign of Poltava's town border would also be appropriate.

Feel free to PM if you require furhter assistance.

 

[bwildfong]

Brad is right. Translation is often context specific and also will need to be put in further perspective of what Russians would normally use at that time for that particular military object
Having had just casual glance at the subject, it will not be "station" as this usually implies railway or road transport. In russian sources it is designated as "Aвиабаза 559" which means aviation base. Whether this would be what actual sign said (and how of much of a secret it was) and what aviation base signs looked like at the time - that needs a bit of reading which I havent had a chance to do.

Station 559 was based under Poltava in Ukraine so a a road sign of Poltava's town border would also be appropriate.

Feel free to PM if you require furhter assistance.

Exactly why I asked - thanks everyone very much for the advice. I'd wondered whether the terminology was so situation specific that a simple run of the word "station" through an online Russian translator wouldn't be accurate enough. I'll go with Gaudin's version of "aviation base" and/or a local sign for Poltava and call it close enough. Again, my thanks.

BTW, I don't really have any actual historical/visual info that such a sign actually existed; I really just wanted to hint at the fact that this American pilot was on a Soviet airfield. Can't really think of any other "props" that would clearly show that the setting was at an Operation Frantic base in the Ukraine.

I priced out an aftermarket American 500lb. bomb in resin from on online hobby shop for which I did have a 1944 photo showing a "Death to Hitler" message in both English and Russian chalked on it - perfect, except that after postage and handling/shipping was added, my $5.00 bomb became a $35.00 bomb, 3 times what the pilot figure cost me

If anyone has any advice for other suitable Soviet-style props, I'm all ears - thanks in advance for any help!

Cheers,

Brian

 

[ChaosCossack]

Sounds like a cool idea.
As to props... Is the bomb simple enough to sculpt? Maybe a sign in Russian saying "pilot's latrine" (a nod to your sense of haha)? A push cart with ammo boxes with "559" stencilled on the side?

I'm sure you'll come up with something interesting. Love forward to seeing it.

Colin

 

[Gaudin]

I was just thinking that - bomb would be very easy to sculpt. Another interesting idea (depending on the figure) is to give the pilot a traditional ukrainian flower wreath with ribbons to hold (on a presumption that a local girl could have given him one Dont know how that would fit with your overall idea, but it is something different.

 

[bwildfong]

Sounds like a cool idea.
As to props... Is the bomb simple enough to sculpt? Maybe a sign in Russian saying "pilot's latrine" (a nod to your sense of haha)? A push cart with ammo boxes with "559" stencilled on the side?

I'm sure you'll come up with something interesting. Love forward to seeing it.

Colin

I was just thinking that - bomb would be very easy to sculpt. Another interesting idea (depending on the figure) is to give the pilot a traditional ukrainian flower wreath with ribbons to hold (on a presumption that a local girl could have given him one Dont know how that would fit with your overall idea, but it is something different.

Those are both really cool ideas gents- thanks. I do have some resin boxes that could be used as a backdrop to the figure, Colin - I'll see how they look. As well, the pilot's hand is shaped so that he could be holding a wreath - would add a spot of colour as well. I'll puzzle it out some more and try to post some shots of the final product.

Thanks again for the assist,

Brian

 

[Mirofsoft]

Station 559 !! US bomber in Ukraine, all american pilots, operation Frantic, so signs, I guess were in english
???????